‘The Birth of a Nation’ screens at Toronto film fest amid Nate Parker controversy

TORONTO – “The Birth of a Nation” is slated to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, but the buzz surrounding the slave rebellion drama has moved away from the screen in recent weeks as controversy swirls around co-writer, director and star Nate Parker.

A 17-year-old rape allegation against Parker and his co-writer Jean Celestin while they were students at Penn State University has loomed in the headlines and threatened to overshadow the film.

Parker was acquitted in the case. Celestin was initially found guilty of sexual assault in the same case, but the conviction was later overturned when the accuser declined to testify for a retrial. The accuser killed herself in 2012.

Parker’s co-star Gabrielle Union, who portrays a rape victim in the film, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times where she spoke of being “in a state of stomach-churning confusion” since learning about the allegations. Union says she was raped at gunpoint 24 years ago and took the role because she “related to the experience.”

Union also wrote that while she doesn’t know what happened in Parker’s case, she saw the film as “an opportunity to inform and educate so that these situations cease to occur.”

“Obviously, it’s very unfortunate for Nate to have something that happened to him 17 years ago and something that he was found not guilty of be really tearing this work apart,” said co-star Mark Boone Junior in a phone interview.

“I’ve read pretty much everything that I can about it, and it’s just very unfortunate, the whole thing.”

The American Film Institute postponed a recently planned screening of the film — also slated to include a Q&A with Parker — until later in the year. AFI dean Jan Schuette said the school would hold a moderated discussion to explore issues of “messenger and message, gender, race and more.”

TIFF still plans to screen the film, and a press conference with the talent is scheduled.

“The Birth of a Nation” has appeared poised for award season accolades well before its arrival in Toronto.

Parker’s directorial debut won key prizes at Sundance Film Festival in January and was sold to Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million. Last month, Parker was honoured by Sundance Institute with its Vanguard Award, joining past recipients including filmmakers Ryan Coogler (“Creed”) and Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash” and TIFF entry “La La Land”).

Parker portrays Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher who leads a slave revolt against white plantation owners in 1831 Virginia.

“This story has never really been told,” said Boone, who portrays Rev. Walthall in the film. “We all know that Abraham Lincoln came out against (slavery) and there was a war called the Civil War where many, many people were killed, families fighting each other over this issue of slavery.

“But there was a significant part of the population — the slaves themselves — who were also rejecting the idea of being slaves. I don’t think that side of it has actually been told — definitely not in this way.”

Co-star Jason Stuart, who portrays plantation owner Joseph Randall, said he hoped the film could be part of a broader dialogue about the importance of valuing black lives.

“When people say ‘all lives matter’ all the time, I say of course all lives matter — but that’s not the point,” said Stuart in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

“The point is we have a terrible problem with the murder of young black people in this country, and something has to be done about it. And I think this film will be part of that education, showing someone that had the fortitude to fight back in the way they did then — and now we can fight back with art.

“Maybe if people see this film and understand the beginnings of where people come from, and they see how actions mean consequences in life that maybe change will come, and we can all look at each other as human beings. And that’s my hope.”

— With files from The Associated Press.

Follow @lauren_larose on Twitter.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today